Everyone's Favorite Rap Artist Has the Fundamental Linguistics Skills of An 8 Year Old

"Non conceptual non-exeptional, everybody's either crime related or sexual"
- O.C. from his oldschool single "Times up"

It seems that everybody’s favorite rapper these days is illiterate or, at best, reads at a fourth-grade level. Intelligent lyricism has fallen by the wayside, while catchy meaningless grunting combined with repetitive party beats have invaded the airwaves. Here are 10 songs that you are guaranteed not to hear on the radio or see on “TRL”. You have probably heard of maximum three artists on this underground mixtape. If this is indeed the case and you consider yourself a fan of this corrupted art form we call hip-hop, please take a few minutes and feel very ashamed of yourself. Then do some research and open your ears to some rap music that’s not blasting up from south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

— Gabe Hernandez ’07, who most certainly included himself on the mix.

1. Jedi Mind Tricks feat. GZA - “On the Eve of War” from Legacy of Blood
2. Non Phixion - “Black Helicopters” from The Future is Now
3. The Arsonists - “Pyromaniax” from As the World Burns
4. Sage Francis - “Slow Down Gandhi” from A Healthy Distrust
5. R.A. the Rugged Man and J-Live - “Give it Up” from Think Differently Music: Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture
6. De La Soul feat. MF DOOM - “Rock Co.Kane Flow” from The Grind Date
7. Immortal Technique - “The 4th Branch” from Revolutionary Vol. 2
8. Del tha Funkee Homosapien - “Virus” from Deltron 3030
9. Black Moon - “War Zone” from War Zone
10. The Skeptics feat. MC Platano - “Long Way from Home” from The Equinox

We do aknowledge there are still some great Artists out there that are more familiar for instance:


As far as mainstream (used to be underground artists) that actually do have mad skill we would aslo add our favorites: Busta Rhymes who's rhyme and Cadence are superb.



also on the list of great artists that are also well known, would be LL Cool J "who also has held his own since the early days of Hip Hop.



Other ultra tight "Lyricists" that can hold it down on the mic- Nas, AZ, Jay-Z, Beenie Man, Redman, Methodman, Das EFX, Heltah Skeltah, Smiff n Wesson, The High n The Mighty, NINE, Tech Nine, Common, Jadakiss, Styles P, The Funkologist, Guru, Sticky Fingaz and Skillz to name a few.

As the queen of Hip-Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige can do no wrong as she continues to drop classic albums and provide the blueprint of what a female singer should be about. But there may be unrest in the royal court as Queen Mary told Vibe magazine about the consequences of having a happy kingdom. "When I took the chance to show people I can be happy, I lost a million of my fans," the Grammy winner said.

"I was like, 'I'm gonna have to lose y'all in order for us to live, because if I keep going down this dark hole, we're all gonna die together. I'm gonna slit my wrists or take some pills, and it's gonna be over.’"

Personnally I like the party vibes joints Mary used to put out so Dark or Happy Mary is always a huge hit in my book. And who could be mad at Mary for finally fulfilling one of her songs wishes "All I Want to be, is be Happy" which by the way had a ton of hot mixes from the original to the Ron G remix to the remix with Keith Murray on it that was one of the hottest singles ever put out and ever remixed.

Rihanna Gets Paid Big on New Year's Eve

While you and yours were out painting the town red and drunk in the new year, Rihanna was getting her hustle on in Moscow. According to thecorporatetakeover.net, the singer was paid $500,000 by Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, for a 40-minute private performance for him and a few of his colleagues on New Year's Eve. $500K for 40 minutes may seem like a bit much (especially since most clubs and bars charged an arm and a leg to occupy the joining when the ball dropped) but for Deripaska, it wasn’t nothing. His net worth is $13.3 billion, after all. So the moral of the story is hard work and a little sing and dance can buy you plenty of umbrellas (-ellas, -ellas eh eh eh) and a few more items to make 2008 that much more affordable. Gotta love the spirit of American hustle. Just don’t let the money make you.

Jay-Z & Beyonce: Look at All These Rumors Can't Take it No More

Representatives for Jay-Z have once again shot down reports that the superstar rapper/mogul has married his world famous girlfriend, singer/actress Beyonce Knowles.

"The reports are not true," a member of the rapper’s inner-circle

While the representative denied the claims, reports continue to come from other sources, who report that the pair were married during a secret ceremony at Giorgio Armani’s house in Paris, France.

The rumors state that the pair opted for matching tattoos on their ring fingers as opposed to traditional wedding bans.

The rumors were recently given credibility, when the superstar couple was spotted in public sporting matching "IV" [forever] tattoos on their ring fingers.

Sources also claim that Beyonce is pregnant with Jay-Z’s child. This is the third time the rumor has surfaced since October 2005.

In a recent report in The Mirror, a source close to Beyonce claims that she is indeed pregnant with Jay-Z‘s child.

"Beyonce is giving nothing away," the source claimed. "She's always been close to her parents and open about wanting a large family of her own one day."

Nate Dogg Suffers A Stroke- Singer/Rap Artist in Rehab

Reps for artist Nate Dogg have officially confirmed the state of his medical condition, following reports earlier this month that the singer suffered a stroke in late December.

His manager, Rod McGrew confirmed last night that Nate Dogg, born Nathaniel Hale, was left paralyzed on the left side of his body, by what was described as a mild stroke shortly before the Christmas holiday.

The 39-year-old singer, known for his collaborations with Hip-Hop artists from Warren G to Ludacris, is currently being treated at an occupational rehab facility.

McGrew went on to say that although Nate Dogg has some "neural-muscular issues that have to be jump-started," he has not suffered any brain damage and his voice has not been affected by his current condition, McGrew told MTV News.

"Time will tell everything, obviously," McGrew added. "But based on situations with similar people his age, and based on his health, the prognosis is good right now."

McGrew’s comments come only days after various websites posted audio of the 911 phone call placed from Nate Dogg’s girlfriend, to paramedics.

Nate Dogg was reportedly treated at Panoma Valley Hospital from December 19 to December 26.

On behalf of the singer and his family, McGrew has asked that Nate Dogg be granted the needed privacy to continue on his path to recovery.

Racism In Denver: Purple Martini Lounge DTC "Too Many dark It's Scaring My White Customers"

Sent to us Via Email from My Boy DJ Big Spade
http://www.djbigspade.biz/news

RACISM AT PURPLE MARTINI NIGHT CLUB?
PURPLE MARTINI LOUNGE
PURE BIGOTRY?
PURE RACISM?
(before you go any further, Please understand that I am a high profile celebrity dj. worked with names like Outkast, Snoop Dogg, G Unit, Busta, Diddy etc Bronco Parties etc. I have nothing tangible to gain from thisreport.)
Is this just "Good Business" "Well look. See, it's getting TOO DARK in here and FRANKLY ITS SCARING AWAY MY WHITE CUSTOMERS." "We're going to do something a little controversial this week, we're gonna select who comes in so there will be a line early"
"Too Dark" a phrase used for Black customers. Practically calling Black customers "Darkies". "SELECT WHO COMES IN" based on RACE! These statements came from Randy, the general manager of Purple Martini located in DTC.
8/3/07 before I [DJ Big Spade] began DJing that evening, Randy wanted to express to me the direction he wanted to take. Randy wished to get rid of people who came to dance and look at women verses people who came to buy drinks. As the DJ, I have no clue who "THESE PEOPLE" are. Randy praises me for my performance for the weeks prior but wanted to make a stronger effort this evening.
Jason opens a separate back door inside the office(I believe to light up a cigarette), looks at me and states, "Do you remember when we talked the week prior, and you said you would like to at least take request the last 15 to 30 min of the night? Well, we just don't want to appease them at all anymore." This is when Randy follows up with

"Well look. See, it's getting TOO DARK in here and FRANKLY ITS SCARING AWAY MY WHITE CUSTOMERS." "We're going to do something a little controversial this week, we're going to select who comes in so there will be a line early"

It was like an intellectual tsunami. I wasn't sure how to respond to this, so I let him continue on all the while in shock. After our words, I went to the dj booth and confided with one of the local promoters I work with, Kevin Kain. I communicated with him via text. I told him not to even come. It was too late to pre-warn everyone I already promoted to by sending over 300 text messages and emails. As the night progressed, Alan Iverson came in. As a regular at my other nightclub Tuesday nights at DC10, I felt that it was my responsibility to pre warn him and let him know. I told him that it's going to be a little different tonight. You may want to get at the MGR if you hear something you don't like."

The same applied to all the Denver Bronco players that attended that evening. Being the professional DJ I am, of course I was able to play anything and I did, but he specifically didn't want to hear anything that would appease to the "Dark" or little "Darkies".
Throughout the evening Kevin Kain would assist me in apologizing to all the Bronco Players (oh, did I mention that these were Black opss.. "DARK" Bronco Players), Denver Nugget players, and the remainder of the SOPHISTICATED Black crowd that showed disgust and frustration at not hearing music that Purple Martini promoted they would hear. We kept screaming, "I'm sorry, but it's not the dj; It's the house". I even went as far as to help out everyone by getting on the mic and stating that the format is going to change.

At the end of the night, I packed up feeling disgusting. As I loaded up my equipment, I noticed the two Black security guards wearing black wife beater tank top shirts.[/b] They seamed just as disgusted as I was. The crowd had cleared and it was just me outside with these two gentlemen. One of them said, "Man did Randy talk to you about the "Crowd Thing"? I was just shocked that I wasn't the only person he talked to in that nature. So I answered, "Yes". He taps the other brother and said, "Let's hear from the dj how Randy brought it to him". I gave them the full detail on the meeting and they both responded, "That's exactly how it was brought to our attention" I wanted to respond but was interrupted by the bald Caucasian security in a suit. He opened the door (insisting for the brothers to come in) and said these exact words, "Hey BOYS! COME ON! Let's wrap it up". I felt like I was in a Twilight Zone entitled "Jim Crow". The two brothers walked in as the security team had a meeting. Needless to say, even his comment bothered me to an extreme! As I watched the brothers walk in, it dawned on me why they where dressed differently than the other security. See, the security "Head Guy" wears a black suit, the other White security guards (that only worked inside the night club) wore black full arm length T shirts, & THE BROTHERS OUTSIDE WORE BLACK WIFE BEATERS! THE REASONING WAS TO DO THE DIRTY WORK OF THE BAR MANAGER! HE LITERALLY USED THOSE BROTHERS TO RACIALLY PROFILE BLACK WOMEN AND MAN, or should I say "THE DARK".
I left DTC's Purple Martini with aspirations to never return.
Racism, I don't know.
This isn't the normal practice of Purple Martini, but if this General Manager continues to be employed by Purple Martini wouldn't they be supporting him?
Bigotry, Guaranteed!

If you're planning to change the atmosphere of a nightclub then promote it. Publicize it using flyers or radio promotions. Hire a RECOGNIZED PROMOTER. [like pleazure entertainment, Kevin Kain, or 3deep etc...]Change your dress code. Turn away customer not properly dressed for your event. If you want, even ask the DJ to change his play list to appeal to the country crowd, rock crowd, hip hop mainstream, hip hop low end, whatever you choose. BUT NEVER & I MEAN NEVER TURN AWAY PAYING CUSTOMERS SOELY BASED ON THEIR RACE! If that was the case, Alan Iverson should've never been able to attend the event with a wave cap under a baseball cap, in sports attire!

At the end of the night, it was disgusting to see Purple Martini's GM hug, laugh and joke with the Bronco players that attended knowing that 5 hours ago he demeaned his kind AND THEIR MONEY! Bigotry is the best intelligent word.
THE [other] DJ (a close associate of mine) is forced to play music that will not appeal you.
If you choose to attend Purple Martini on Friday Nights (in DTC ONLY) please understand, too many of your [black and ethnic] faces will become a threat. Please review all of your options for a Friday Night.
Friday Night I will offer you the same thing Purple Martini offers and more at TREO NIGHT CLUB [without the bigotry].
Either way, please review all your options before you support this type of foolishness.
Dj Big Spade aka Dr.Xclusive the Mad Scientist.
http://www.djbigspade.biz/
djbigspade@yahoo.com
www.myspace.com/djbigspade1

- DJ Big Spade

Now our opinions on it from the Staff at Great Hip Hop Blog:

We discussed all this this with DJ Big Spade, Roger CEO of Pleazure-entertainment.com, DJ Emir of www.DJEmir.com and a few others and the reality in Denver is that many clubs have this same mentality of not "wanting it to become too black" Several Colorado police departments themselves have been known to state to nightclubs that are located in certain classier areas "If you play hiphop and cater to them on this this or that block, then you will be shut down!" This has in the past intimidated many club owners and they then take the same mentality in fear or own their own. Reality is as long as you don't have a liquor license violation they have no right to "shut you down" and only a few club owners have had the guts to push on ahead despite the threats by the city officials and police department heads.

Sevillas and Roger of Pleazure entertainment went to court and won a civil lawsuite against the city for this very same type of discrimination. Now we ourselves feel that many times what's really happening at all these "Lounges" is that they have turned their Lounges from a lounge style format to that of a nightclub format. When this happens and yiou strt packing out your smaller lounge with nightclub patrons but don't bother to re-train your staff for the new format problems occur. You have all these small lounges in Denver acting like nightclubs but boosting lounge style security. Their security doesn't know how to clear their nightclubs and their "Front porch" or parking lots so at the end of the night and you start having drunk patrons (of all races) hanging out too long and eventually causing trouble.

We've seen white girls bust one another over the head with a Moet bottle- (not a beer bottle a Moet bottle) obviously even Higher end clients who we're sure paid a good amount for that Moet bottle can degrade down to the brawling level once the alcohol sets in. Now they were just restrained then released, no news story there either.

Now had that been a Hispanic or African-American that busted some white guy or lady overthe head with a bottle and guaranteed they would have been arrested and a huge news story would have been spun about the voilence Hip hop brings to nightclubs blah blah blah etc...

Today, most nightclubs in Denver are switching to a Top40/Hip-hop or Mixed Hip hop and house music format because in reality the demographic of Hip hop music has changed, Caucasians, hispanics, Asians and African Americans all listen to hiphop and expect it at the nightclubs. Raves aren't as prevelant as they used and as a result the groups of adults who grew up on techno, drum n base and house music have shrunk dramaticaly in the Denver Metro area. As a result there no longer is as big a following for techno in Denver nightclubs as there used to be. Tons of Nightclubs who swore "oh We'll never do Hip Hop here" when promoters used to approach them now all play Hip Hop almost exclusively or "Mashup" the hiphop with Rock and House music (mashup being a new "less ethnic" term for what the nightclub and mixtape industries used to call remixes and blends)

We talked about things we could do afterwards and we came to a few conclusions so let us know what you think we should do.
until they remove the current GM (General Manager), issue a public appology to it's black customers and donate money to a Black College Fund Society etc... the ideas are....
1. We could call to boycott the establishment and rally against the establishment etc... [/b]
or the more controversial approach
2. We could call for all black and ethnic people in Denver to actually go to the Purple Martini... Early form and get in line early til we all flood the club with nothing but as the club called it "dark" faces yet not buy a drop of drinks. - The Hip Hop Critic

Mixtape Volume 6 Recieves 5 Stars

Hip Hop Mixtape Volume 6 Recieves another Mixtape Award Five Star Rating!
This has by far been one of our favorite mixtapes of all time. We are huge Star Wars fans afterall and DJ Emir- The Mixtape Jedi, has put together a Mixtape both Hip Hop Heads and Star Wars Fans alike will love for the ages. His mixes and his theme work together and blend perfectly together to create a complete mixtape. Something which cannot be said for many other mixtapes in the industry. While many mixtapes boast gunshots, shotguns and tons of shout outs this mixtape has taken a creative and masterfull approach, a Jedi Master's approach to be more precise!
Enough of our banter... this is one hot mixtape!
So let us give you a full sample of The Darkside...
as DJ Emir takes you on both the path of the Jedi and the path of a Dark Jedi
on his Mixtape Volume 6 "Darkside Shift"